Having a fondness for OS/2 I was elated to have an update being released by Arca Noae in ArcaOS. I waited patiently, checking multiple times daily, for weeks during their countless delays, until the official release where I immediately purchased by own copy of the new OS/2.

I had even purchased a Lenovo N580 for the purpose of running OS/2 on new hardware (eComStation doesn't run on the Lenovo). I burned the iso to a DVD and began the installation. Maybe 15 minutes later the installation was completed and two reboots later I had a desktop. Success! Now I could browse the Internet without much worry about the silent predators known as Windows viruses and malware. I click on Firefox, the browser opens. I type in my URL. No page displays.

I check the network setup and it has an IP but I couldn't ping my gateway. I rebooted. Ping worked. Started Firefox, typed in a URL. No page. Ping of the gateway didn't work.

ArcaOS and eComStation work fine on my IBM Thinkpad T60's. Installed ArcaOS on my HP desktop. Successful installation. Start Firefox. Type in URL. Network gone. I found the HP desktop and the Lenovo N580 laptop both have Atheros chipsets.

Opened a ticket with Arca Noae. Nothing for 3 weeks. Had me try changing the setup in a config file and still dropped the network. Nearly 6 weeks later I'm asked to change the cable or maybe I have a bad port on my switch. Unlikely since I used the same cable in the same port for another laptop with another OS, but I bought a new cable and plugged it into a different port.
Same problem. A few days later I'm asked to reset my router because that could potentially be the problem according to tech support. Reset the router (FreeBSD running IPF) and same problem continues. More time goes by and I'm asked to create a TCP dump. A few days go by and I'm asked to change my firewall rules because "possibly" IPv6 traffic is confusing the IP stack on ArcaOS.

It must be noted that I currently run: OpenIndiana, Minix3, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Plan9, and Windows 8 going through the same router without any problems. I have also ran OpenBSD, SmartOS, Solaris 11, 9front, Inferno, Windows 10 successfully going through the same router without any problems. Plus I stream Hulu and Netflix to my TV. In addtion, I have two IBM Thinkpad T60's which have eComStation and ArcaOS installed and they both work perfectly fine and no network problems.

It has been two months since the ticket was opened. The last update it was said by tech support the ArcaOS MMALC driver is used successfully by others. I don't dispute that. But when that driver is used with an Atheros chipset then network problems occur (at least on my two machines with Atheros). Given that no network problems exist on the T60 but they do with Atheros chipset machines seems to give credence to my diagnosis.

That's what I always say about closed operating systems. It's interesting what you say about Atheros and SmartOS. Is your Atheros card a WiFi card too? Seems SmartOS does not get along with Atheros Wifi.

I'm kindof into the arcane OS myself. Have used Minix3 quite a bit. Did they ever fix their WiFi stack?

The HP desktop has a built in Atheros Ethernet that works fine with SmartOS. My problems are with ArcaOS which is the revamped OS/2.

ArcaNoae doesn't seem interested in finding a solution to the problem of having my network drop with any network activity. I have two machines that both have built in Ethernet using an Atheros chipset and both do the same thing. I kept getting, change the cable, change the switch port, recycle your router. The last thing they wanted was for me to change firewall rules. Everything works on the machines in question with other operating systems, only theirs is the one with a problem. But they won't acknowledge it or provide a fix.

One would think a company selling a commercial product and offers support would do more, but they are not. Which is why I cannot suggest people pay $129 for something that might not work, and possibly get little or no support. BTW, there were other tickets in their queue for other network adapters not working.

Not sure where you got SmartOS, but it is great.

ArcaOS, the new OS/2, not so great. Maybe if I could get it to work on something other than my Thinkpad T60 I'd have a better impression. But to claim it works on new hardware, when it doesn't, and support that won't acknowledge the problem leaves me with a poor view of it.